


A friend among the living

by Denisaiko



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Afterlife, Canon Compliant, Eventual Romance, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Paranormal, Reincarnation, Reincarnation but not as you know it, Romance, Sexual Content, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:08:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26667973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Denisaiko/pseuds/Denisaiko
Summary: She found herself wandering the universe, not knowing what her true purpose was now that she was no longer alive. Her beloved man was now alone and miserable, without family or someone to love him, though he was now the leader of the Resistance. She wanted to show him she still cared, to tell him she was watching over him, but she didn't know how...and she wouldn't be able to, anyway. Unless...
Relationships: Evfra de Tershaav/Original Character(s), Evfra de Tershaav/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	A friend among the living

**Author's Note:**

> So I was looking for more fan fiction about Evfra to read. There is never enough fanfic about him, so after I read everything I found, well, I thought why not make one myself?  
> I can only make art properly, not stories, so I decided to spook you all with my horrible writing skills, since Halloween is getting closer and closer.  
> The story will have a bit of a dark note, but it will also be sweet and funny from time to time. I decided to explore a bit the concept of reincarnation, as most Angara seem to believe in it. I will probably not try to explain it in a scientific way, but I will go with my gut while trying to keep things canon-compliant.  
> Do not hesitate to comment and let me know how I can improve, because I don't usually write and I know I'm not good.
> 
> Also, please excuse my English, it's not my first language.

She was a storm of emotions.  
She woke up in a sea of nothingness, wondering where she was and where her family was.  
She heard indistinguishable echoes in the distance (or was it her mind?), and couldn't feel herself anymore, so she stopped for a while to listen to her heartbeats. They weren't there. Neither was her bioelectricity, not as she knew it, she noticed, while trying to summon a faint zap with her fingers...which were now just a warm glow. The light from the zap was there, but she felt nothing from it.  
Looking further down where her body used to be, she noticed she was just a flickering light with the barest shape of the Angaran woman she once was. She tried to sigh, telling herself it's just a dream and she would be back into her normal form in the morning, she would wake up with Evfra still sleeping at her side, a hint of a smile on his lips, the man she loved, the man she would be spending the rest of her life with. They were engaged to be married, Evfra having won a place for them to live on Aya for a while. They would live a good life, have a couple dozen of children and form a big happy family. She would take care of them, Evfra would entertain them all with his sense of humor and everything would be alright. The bony aliens would leave soon, she knew the Angara were resilient warriors when they needed to be.  
She had learned to fight from Evfra, as he had intensive military training and was one of the best among his peers.  
Evfra... She smiled, remembering him fully, the introverted but sweet man she grew up with.  
Those were her thoughts in that night, when she was sleeping alone in his room, while he was on his way back from Aya. He had been there to sign some documents and make arrangements. Then, she remembered everything. That was the horrid night when a horde of Kett raided their daar and took everyone. She was in no condition to fight, as she slept naked, like everyone else (Voeld was cold, but their houses were warm and cozy). She was overpowered by two massive Kett holding her and throwing her around, not caring that she was freezing in the cold night of Voeld.  
"Nahiyaaa!!!" She heard a woman - Evfra's mother - screaming in the distance in front of her.  
Nahiya...she repeated the word again and again, struggling to remember what it was and why it was affecting her. Then, it all came back to her. The screams, Evfra's family, who were so nice to her and treated her like one of their daughters, so nice to her - an orphan - that they chose to call her part of their family long before she and Evfra fell in love with each other, now they were all dragged through the snow by pairs of bony Kett who smelled like festering meat. She was desperate. So desperate, that she hoped to either catch the Kett distracted enough to steal their weapons, fight them all and save her family, or just freeze to death fast enough so she wouldn't have to suffer at the hands of the bony tyrants.  
Nahiya was her name.  
She remembered her true mother whisper the name when she was little, then she remembered it again whispered by the same woman on her death bed, weakened by disease when Nahiya was only 9. Then she was alone, begging for food or offering to work for anything that would help her survive, as her true mother was the only family she had, before Evfra's true mother found and sheltered her.  
Nahiya returned to the present, looked around her once again and tried to remember how she ended up becoming a luminous form with long-forgotten past memories. The echoing voices she heard earlier became whispers while coming closer and closer to her, drowning her, until everything became silent. She thought of moving around, and she did so with ease, without any effort or fatigue.  
"I must have passed out...or, am I d...dead?", she thought with dread, wishing to go back to Voeld. As she wished so, a lightning storm engulfed her and she felt herself dashing through space at a nauseating speed, while the frozen ball of ice that was Voeld came closer and closer to her in an instant. Floating above the planet still felt like a dream, but a great deal of it felt real. Something was nagging in the back of her mind, but she couldn't manage to see what it was or why it was nudging her so. Then a ship passed through her. A Kett ship, she realized, suddenly being able to see everything that happened inside it at once. She wanted to stop it from touching the planet surface, but her incorporeal form was too weak for that. Then, she wept. Slowly and silent at first, then her voice rising with a desperate wail. One of the Kett near her shook its head and turned towards her, causing her to stop, but saw nothing, resuming its patrol. Maybe it heard her. She screamed this time, louder, now turning all the kett heads in the room and realizing she can actually make alive beings hear her.  
She had no doubt now that she was dead and her soul was looking to reincarnate. But how?  
Time to find out.  
  
_____  
  
"I can't, I'm too busy".  
That was the only answer Nia was getting when she asked her boyfriend to help her get some weapon training. She worked in an office, while her boyfriend was a personal trainer at a gym, but he also had military training, working small jobs for the Alliance when he was needed. They lived in London though none of them was originally from the UK.  
"At least direct me to someone who can help me. Please."  
There, she added, hoping he would agree. Nia wanted to be able to defend herself when she was alone, though her physical condition had much to be desired. Her thyroid disease would not allow her to put more mass on her body, be it fat or muscle. There was a cure, but she couldn't afford it. Her boyfriend, Victor, did not seem eager to help either, though he earned in a few months much more than she did in one year. She no longer had family alive, so she had to make do any way she could. Victor seemed to be a nice enough guy, but he started to slowly grow colder towards her as the years passed, and she couldn't help but notice and suffer.  
"I am sure nobody can help you for free in these trying times, and I won't pay for your lessons". Victor scoffed, pinning Nia with his glare.   
"Sheesh...I will pay for it myself, just lead me to a good instructor". Nia was beginning to get a little annoyed, and it showed on her face. Not that Victor cared.  
"Why? So you can cheat on me with him?" Victor threw these words like knives, and Nia felt them sink into her heart deeper than she hoped. She has never cheated on Victor, nor was she tempted to. He, however, was so jealous that he had installed spycams inside their apartment so he could see what she did while he was at work and she was at home. He didn't have much to see, as she was almost all the time at the office. She would write poetry or paint when she was at home, and occasionally one or more friends would visit her.   
"I...can't believe you just said that. You see and know that I've been trying to be closer to you than you let me be lately, and now you accuse me of wanting to cheat on you?" She rose from her seat, willing to go to her room and watch a movie or play a game to not let the stress get to her.   
"You give me a lot of reasons to believe that you would. You refused to let go of your male friends, although I asked nicely, and you keep seeing a tall and slim guy once a week. How am I supposed to trust you if you aren't willing to compromise just a little bit for me?"   
"The 'tall and slim guy' is a woman and she is my friend, her name is Jien, and you can't just call my friends 'a little bit of a compromise', that's an asshole move and you are an abusive partner!" She was really angry now, and moved on to pass by him while going to her room.  
"I'll show you abuse!" he said, and grabbed her by the collar, yanking her and shoving her body into the nearest wall. "Now THIS is abuse!" he shouted angrily. Suddenly he realized what he had done when he saw Nia wiping her hand by the side of the head, a tiny bit of blood smeared on it. He started to shake, but said nothing.   
"Get out of my house, please...and get out of my life". Nia spoke these words with a tiny, almost whispering voice, shocked and almost fearful.   
Victor did not apologize, he didn't even throw another look at her. He grabbed his stuff and threw as much as he could in his luggage. He didn't have much, since this was Nia's place they were staying in.   
After he left, she stood in that same place for a while, before Jien called her.   
"Sweetheart, I saw Victor leaving your place with a lot of luggage. What happened? May I come in?"  
"Yes...c...come in, p...please".   
That was all Jien needed to hear. She told her head of security, Luna, to wait outside and hurried up towards her friend's apartment, opened the door and saw Nia on the floor, sighing plaintively. Shock written on her face, Jien went straight to her and saw the thin trickle of blood that got dried on the side of her head and ear.   
"I have friends in high places, I can get him out of the Alliance or that gym job he has, just say the word". Jien hugged her friend and called her doctor for Nia, after settling her on the couch and turning the stove off. Whatever food had been cooking there was long forgotten and charred.   
  
Lexi T'Perro climbed the stairs leading to whatever apartment Jien had called her to, stopping in front of the open door, watching Jien making tea and another girl, who did not seem well, lying on the couch. She ignored any protocol of knocking or asking for permission to enter, and she went directly to Jien, who greeted her and showed her the way to Nia's couch.   
"She is very shaken, by all means. Her boyfriend did it. Please examine her and let's make sure everything is alright." Jien said softly. Lexi didn't know Jien Garson very well, except that she was a billionaire with a kind heart and unsated curiosity. She agreed to work for her secret project, which involved leaving the Milky Way towards Andromeda, making colonies there for everyone who would choose or be chosen to go. Shio'Leth, the Quarian scientist, discovered a way to redesign a mass effect relay and turn it into a very high-quality telescope that would help them observe and choose suitable worlds for people to settle on. Of course, not many people knew every detail by now, Jien was secretive and paranoid, but there was nothing she could say about it anymore.   
After examining Nia's physical and mental health, she checked on her for the last time and gave her pieces of advice any good doctor would give their patient. Nia's wound was superficial, but her mental state was worse. She needed her friends by her side now more than ever, and Jien wouldn't be able to be there for her, as the Andromeda Initiative was supposed to leave soon.   
"Jien, will she be alright?" Lexi asked, worry crawling into her voice.  
"I will make sure of it, because I am taking her with us. If she wishes so, of course." They both turned their heads towards Nia, who was listening intently.   
"I will need a day or two to think. This is too much for me right now..." Nia said, looking down. Then, remembering that Jien and all her other friends would leave with the Initiative, she realized she would have no one here on Earth with her, and she would never see them again. She didn't want to lose her friends, now that Jien was giving her a chance to join them to a trip to Andromeda. "Actually, yes, I want to come with you."   
"That's more like it", said Jien, a big smile lighting up her face. "Plus we could use your strategy and organizing skills, I know you excel at this."   
"Yes, I will be happy to help", said Nia, temporarily forgetting what happened to her prior to this talk.   
"Welcome to the Andromeda Initiative, my dear. I will explain everything to you after you rest and pack a locker of stuff with you".  
Nia knew she would be sleeping a lot of time in cryo, but she was now happy to get away from the life of hell she has lived so far on Earth, and explore a new galaxy with her friends. Adventure awaited, and she was up for it as long as her friends would be there with her.   
  



End file.
